This newsletter provides updates for leaders at St John, emphasizing the critical role of volunteer leadership in promoting job satisfaction and retention among emergency service volunteers. It highlights the importance of effective communication and leadership training for supervisors to improve workplace culture and efficiency. Additionally, the document includes resources for improving meeting effectiveness and becoming a leading organization by mastering problem-solving and knowledge transfer.

1. Welcome
leadership update
This is the fourth of a regular bi-monthly newsletter to provide information and tips
for leaders within St John. Please forward this newsletter on to any other leaders
within St John.
Edition 4: March-April 2011
The importance of volunteer leadership
The January 2011 edition of the Australian Journal of Emergency Management
contained a valuable article “Retention of volunteers in the emergency services:
exploring interpersonal and group cohesion factors”. The article examined a num-
ber of factors that contributed to job satisfaction for volunteers within emergency
services agencies.
RECEIVING FUTURE
The article concluded that “volunteers perceived the relationship with their direct
NEWSLETTERS
supervisor as the greatest determinant of job satisfaction and future volunteering
If you would like to
intention. The quality of local volunteer leadership has been noted as the most
continue to receive this
critical of all of the factors in promoting volunteer retention.
newsletter, please Email
Peter LeCornu at Being a member of a well led, inclusive and harmonious team is typically associ-
ated with higher levels of satisfaction and intended commitment to the agency,
ceo@stjohn.org.au
and to this end, as indicated by McLennan and colleagues (2009), emergency
service agencies should look to strengthen training in leadership and people
management skills for supervisors. Although costly, such training will give super-
visors skills in managing workplace culture through leadership and modeling.
LEADERSHIP In addition to promoting retention, this may in turn lead to greater efficiency and
WEBSITE responsiveness in the face of emergencies.”
More information about
leadership can be found in
Leadership Podcast
the leadership section of the Have you struggled to run an effective meeting?
members area of the national
If yes, then you might want to listen to these podcasts on running
website.
effective meetings:
WWW.STJOHN.ORG.AU
WEB REFERENCE
USERNAME:ONESTJOHN
http://www.manager-tools.com/2010/08/
PASSWORD: MEMBER effective-meetings-starter-model-part-1
http://www.manager-tools.com/2010/08/
effective-meetings-starter-model-part-2

2. Expressing Appreciation
John Ryan, president and CEO of the Center for Creative Leadership, writes in the most
recent edition of the centre’s e-newsletter:
“Many years ago, I was a junior U.S. Navy pilot in the Mediterranean, serving on our newest WEB REFERENCE
nuclear aircraft carrier with the most modern aircraft in the U.S. Navy. The other aircraft http://www.ccl.org/leadership/enewslet-
ter/2010/NOVpower.aspx
carrier in the same area was our oldest conventional carrier with our oldest aircraft. But it
outperformed ours in almost every way. We had a technically competent captain who was
not a good communicator and rarely offered a compliment. When I visited the older carrier
for a few days, it was immediately obvious that the captain there was a great communicator.
“Several times a day he used the ship’s speaker system to tell the entire 5,000-member
CONTRIBUTIONS
crew what specifically they were doing well, often recognizing teams and individuals. The
WELCOME
entire ship hummed with energy and high performance.
• Do you have any great tips
“What kinds of captains are we in our own organizations?” on any aspect of leadership?
• Have you recently read any great
Learning Organisations quotes, articles or books on
One of the leading ideas in how to lead an organization to change in response to changing leadership?
environment is the idea of a “leading organization”. David Garvin from Harvard University
• Have you listened to any
has been a proponent for the idea for many years. To become a learning organization,
great podcasts on leadership?
Garvin recommends mastering five activities:
• Solving problems systematically • Have you any great stories
• Experimenting with new approaches to work
of leadership within St John?
• Learning from past experience
• Learning from other companies and from customers
If your answer to any of the questions is
• Transferring knowledge throughout your organization
yes, then please send details to
An executive summary of a 1993 article on this topic can be found at: Peter LeCornu ceo@stjohn.org.au
http://www1.hbr.org/products/93402/93402p4.pdf .
To obtain the full article, go to:
http://www.ihrim.org/Pubonline/Wire/Aug2008/LearningOrganization.pdf
WEB REFERENCE
A survey to help people assess how well their organization is as a learning organization http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoMN
q4Tijto&feature=channel
can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/5o3uke.
Contributed by Jeff Butler, ACT